1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to data handling and presentation techniques. More particularly, the invention relates to data acquisition and logging systems associated with exploration and production of subsurface resources, for example, oil, gas or water, and preparing deliverable files for customers.
2. Background Art
The exploration for subsurface minerals typically requires various techniques for determining the characteristics of geological formations. Many characteristics, such as the hydrocarbon volume, resistivity, porosity, lithology, and permeability of a formation, may be deduced from certain measurable quantities associated with the geological formations. Drilling of a well to determine the characteristics of the geological formations is a well known technique. A data acquisition and logging “tool” or “system” is typically used to acquire information describing the well characteristics. The well may be, for example, an oil well, but can also be a well for exploration for other subsurface resources, such as gas and water.
Data acquisition and logging systems generally include “Wireline” logging systems, measurements-while-drilling (MWD) systems, logging-while-drilling (LWD) systems, and logging-while-tripping (LWT) systems.
Wireline logging systems typically involve a process by which oil or gas wells are surveyed to determine their geological, petrophysical or geophysical properties using electronic measuring instruments conveyed into the wellbore by means of an armored steel cable, known as a wireline cable. The data acquired by well logging instruments that are secured to the wireline cable are transmitted back to a back-end portion of the data acquisition and logging system located at the surface through electrical conductors in the wireline cable. Conventional wireline technology is well known in the oil and gas industry.
MWD or LWD systems typically make the same measurements as Wireline logging systems, but the measurements are obtained while the well is being drilled. MWD or LWD systems include sensors in the drill-string to obtain the aforementioned measurements. LWT systems use run-in tools that are sent downhole through mud channels in drill strings during drilling or after the drilling operations are finished and before the drill strings are pulled uphole. LWT tools typically make measurements while the drill string is retrieved. These measurements may be transmitted to the surface via mud-pulse telemetry (or similar techniques) while drilling or stored in well logging memory for later retrieval.
The measurements acquired by any tool, such as a wireline, MWD, LWD, or LWT system, and/or data derived from these measurements are typically presented in standard formats (i.e., deliverable files) for delivery to the customers. These deliverable files (reports) are used by the customer to make business decisions. For example, an oil company may use the report to make decisions regarding the commercial feasibility of a particular oil well. In some cases, the deliverable reports may be used by a governmental or regulatory agency to determine whether to grant drilling permits.
Present data acquisition and logging systems typically require the oil field services company (i.e., the company that used the logging tools) to manually prepare deliverable files for each customer. These deliverable files are typically in the standard DLIS format, which is an American Petroleum Institute standard (API RP 66—“Recommended Digital Log Interchange Standard (“DLIS”), V-1.00). In some cases, the oil field services company may use a program or a script to generate the deliverable files. In addition, the services companies typically also provide logs or graphs (“graphical deliverable files,” i.e., hardcopy or electronic version of graphs) of the relevant data. The standards for various logs/graphs are covered by API RP31A. In the following description, “electronic data files” (e.g., the DLIS files) may refer to electronic files that contain well logging data, associated information, and/or parameters used to produce the logs, and the graphs/logs (whether physical print or electronic version) will be referred to as “graphical deliverable files” or “graphical deliverables.” The electronic data files and graphical deliverable files may be referred to collectively as “deliverable files.”
However, conventional electronic data files and graphical deliverable files are often not linked. That is, neither the electronic data files (e.g., DLIS files) nor the graphical deliverable files include information indicating that they are linked or information relating to how the graphical deliverables are generated from the data deliverables. In addition, computational parameters used in data manipulation and graph generation are typically not included in such deliverable files. As a result, it is difficult to ascertain that the electronic data files actually correspond to the graphical deliverable files and it is difficult, if not impossible, to recreate the graphical deliverable files. This could present a serious problem because the graphical deliverable files can be easily altered, and a small change to the data can make a large impact on the client's decisions. Furthermore, it will be difficult for the client to reproduce the graphical deliverable files from the electronic data files. As noted above, the electronic data files (e.g., DLIS files) typically include only the well log data and the well related information, but not the settings/parameters used to generate the graphical deliverables. Thus, the client must infer or deduce certain variables, parameters, etc. in order to reproduce the graphs or to verify the authenticity of the graphs in order to generate an accurate model of the well.
In order for a client to make an informed decision, the client may want to extract the information from the deliverable files, create a model of the well on their own system, and then perform various types of analysis on the model to determine how to ultimately proceed. Thus, there is a need for methods and systems to have deliverable files that include the necessary information to facilitate these processes or to have deliverable files that are traceable and/or not easily altered.